Anger can be a destructive emotion. The physical and emotional price is costly enough, but the disruption and danger that it brings to others can be devastating. So today I’d like you to do a little personal self-assessment regarding the place that anger plays in your life. Some people can undergo all sorts of physical and/or emotional attacks and never unleash the anger inside them. Whereas others will blow up if you accidentally look at them the wrong way at the wrong moment.

The reality is that we all maintain conscious or unconscious distances from our anger. The rule of thumb is that the further away you are from anger, the safer and better off you and those around you are. If your anger is balancing on some kind of a weak hair-trigger, then you tend to snap very quickly. But those who can learn to maintain a safe emotional distance from their anger both physically and mentally benefit in a variety of ways. In a relationship, I suggest that you keep this in mind and take a measure of this emotion in any potential future partner as well. The news is full of horror stories about senseless violence over the most inconsequential of things. So where do you fall on this issue? Do you maintain a safe distance from your anger?